Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 29. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $207. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CALABRIA, Tarentum. Circa 425-415 BC. AR Nomos (7.69 g, 10h). Contemporary counterfeit. Phalanthos riding dolphin left, holding strigil; prawn below / Taras as Oikistes seated left, holding uncertain objects(?). Fischer-Bossert p. 386, N’ 44 = Vlasto 246 (this coin); cf. HN Italy 844. VF, toned, porous, a few scratches under tone. Unique.

From the Colin E. Pitchfork Collection. Ex Vecchi 17 (15 December 1999), lot 480; M.P. Vlasto Collection, 246.

Both Fischer-Bossert and Vlasto believe this coin to be a contemporary forgery of slightly barbarous style as the chair is skewed to an angle and the figure is somewhat crude.